From Wikipedia:

Calimocho is a drink consisting of approximately 50% red wine and 50% cola-based soft drink.

If you have a bottle of crappy red wine and some extra coke lying around, give this drink a shot. It’s quite tasty. I’m sippin’ on a glass right now!

Sometime in late-August, Steven Wilson had announced his very first full-length solo album. It goes without saying that I was excited. I am a huge fan of Steven and the entirety (is that a word?) of his musical career. And now, after repeated visits to the Steven Wilson Headquarters and later the Insurgentes website, the new album is available for pre-order!

It is currently available in only two formats, 2xCD/DVD-A or 4×10″ Vinyl. Both editions contain a hardback book of photographs by Lasse Hoile who is creating a documentary of the same name. I browsed around a bit more and finally took notice of the pricing: £34.00.. which is roughly $50.. which, after shipping, is over $75. Boo!

Anyway, I ordered it. I also found this lovely comment on the Insurgentes website:

Music is Art and it should be presented as such, not as a set of compressed computer files or a basic disc in a disposable crystal case.

I couldn’t agree more. There are a lot of things wrong with things like iTunes. If you really take a look at what you get when you spend $9.99 on an album, you’d realize you’re getting ripped off. When a (good) artist creates an album, it is Art and everything involved has its part. Especially the high fidelity audio and the packaging. iTunes sells compressed files (believe me, it’s audible). Then the mobility of these files are restricted courtesy of digital rights management. Sometimes you’ll get a PDF version of the liner notes and album art, which is definitely better than nothing.

I’d like to be able to purchase something on iTunes (for the convenience of things) and then later spend a little bit extra to receive the physical copy. $9.99 up front through iTunes, then $7.00 later to get the CD ($16.99 for the disc, minus $9.99 = $7).

Anyway, this turned from a thing about art to a rant about iTunes. I’m done. You can order this piece of art by visiting this link. Bye.

This is something that will never make sense to me. If you “turn your life around” any more than once, shouldn’t you be right back to where you started?

I suppose it’s that, or you just didn’t do a good job the first time ’round.

Please, discuss…

Last night at about 9:00 (midnight, east-coast time), I gave my good friend Jim a Happy Birthday call. Today, October 8th, is his birthday. Alas I was not the first, since he was with two other people at the time. They beat me to the punch after realizing who was calling at such a late hour. Anyway, we chatted for a bit. I heard stories from their recent trip to Northport and brief updates on how everyone in CT was doing. I also received some very troubling news. On Saturday September 20th, the Green Room closed.

I suppose we all knew this was coming. The Green Room was by far the best bar in/near Fairfield. Of course, “best” is a subjective term. To me, and my group of friends who would frequent the Green Room, the other bars in the area were loud, crowded, expensive and hosted a crappy clientele.

The Green Room was perfect. Most nights, we would be the only ones in there. Drinks were cheap (and strong). Any song we picked on the jukebox would play nearly instantly. The walls were lined with couches and other comfy chairs giving the place a “living room” vibe. They had board games and card games strewn about and a pool table that actually had an entire rack of balls (no dart board unfortunately - it’s only flaw). Occasionally, a local band would be performing for a very small audience. And now, it’s gone.

The thoughts had crossed my mind before: “How is this place still in business? We seem to be the only ones who come here regularly. Maybe we only come on their ‘off’ days. They’re probably much more busy other nights of the week.” I was wrong, dead wrong. It’s a shame that such a nice, respectable establishment is now gone. I am saddened.

Green Room End Scene

Friday evening, Sigur Ros performed at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California. Then on Saturday, Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers were at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco. And once again, it’s now Tuesday and I’ve completely lost interest in posting some form a review of either show. That’s not to say that either were remotely close to a disappointment. Both were fantastic in their own way (very different genres of music).

The opener on Friday, Parachutes, was apparently connected to Sigur Ros in some way. They were basically Sigur Ros if the band couldn’t play in time with one another and the singer was shy. It was amusing to hear a lot of people around me asking one another “that’s not them is it?”. Anyway, the main act performed flawlessly (except for one section while playing along a sample). Here’s the setlist, with links to songs/videos from the official website: here and here…
1. Svefn-g-englar
2. Glosoli
3. Ný Batterí
4. Við spilum endalaust
5. Hoppipolla
6. Með bloðnasir
7. Festival
8. Fljotavik
9. Untitled #6 - E-bow
10. Saeglopur
11. Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur
12. Haffsol
13. Gobbledigook
Encore. Untitled #8 - Popplagið

During the encore it started to rain a bit, which I’ve noticed people saying it was “God crying after a beautiful performance”. That about sums up the evening.

Stephen Kellogg was on Saturday, but I don’t have any pictures so I’m not going to say much: It was once again another very entertaining show.

Lastly! Matthew Good has a new live CD out. For some reason I had this crazy idea in my head that it would possibly also be released as a DVD. Guess not. Anyway, it’s only out on iTunes right now. So if you love DRM and lossy compression, go get it now! Otherwise, the physical release is available for pre-order and will ship to the US.